AM Chapter 1

01 Illegal Imprisonment

01 Illegal Imprisonment

Familiar blue slippers intruded into the room. The lights were off again, and the light from the half-open door was mostly blocked by the approaching figure.

Chen Mo sat on the floor, one knee raised and the arm on the same side resting on it, his eyes stubbornly fixed on the unlit floor.

“Heh.”

Hearing the sound, Chen Mo tilted his head slightly, his eyes glancing upwards. The person who had snorted slowly squatted down in front of him, as usual.

A faint light grazed Liang Jingren’s profile and shone into Chen Mo’s shrinking pupils. After clearly seeing Liang Jingren’s face, he quickly lowered his eyelids.

Actually, even without looking, Chen Mo knew that Liang Jingren wasn’t really smiling.

The person with no smile suddenly reached out and grabbed his chin, lifting it up to force him to meet his gaze.

“Do you admit you were wrong?” Liang Jingren looked at him and asked.

Chen Mo’s eyelids were half-lowered, and he didn’t answer.

Liang Jingren released his chin, and just as he was about to lower his head, he slapped him across the face extremely quickly – “Slap!” – followed by the same forceful question: “Do you admit you were wrong?”

Chen Mo turned his head in the direction of the slap, biting his lip, his eyes glaring at the person who hit him.

Liang Jingren, this was the person who locked him in this dark, unventilated Little Black Room, not giving him food for two days, always tugging at his ears, slapping him, and even kicking him when drunk.

The hand that had left a red mark on his face rose again. Chen Mo subconsciously tilted his head and closed his eyes, but his useless stomach grumbled.

Liang Jingren’s hand didn’t come down. He tiptoed, supported himself on his knees with both hands, changed his squatting position, and then asked him knowingly: “Aren’t you hungry?”

Damn it, so hungry. Chen Mo rolled his eyes behind closed lids.

“Really not admitting you were wrong?” This time, Liang Jingren’s voice was much gentler, with a hint of coaxing. Chen Mo had no doubt that as long as he gave in, he could immediately get a lavish meal.

Liang Jingren patiently said, “Chen Mo, you have to understand, it’s not that I don’t want to give you food, it’s that you want it this way.”

Chen Mo still didn’t speak, and the only response he got was a series of grumbling sounds from his wronged stomach.

Liang Jingren smiled, a genuine smile this time. Chen Mo saw it clearly, but he was almost too embarrassed to live, pursing his lips and pressing hard on the source of the sound.

After Chen Mo barely managed to control his empty stomach from making any more noise, Liang Jingren had already gotten up and was preparing to leave the room.

Chen Mo watched the pair of blue slippers step on the matte wooden floor and walk to the doorway. Moving his gaze upwards, Liang Jingren turned sideways and held the doorknob. As he looked back one last time before closing the door, he said:

“Hurry up and admit you were wrong.”

On the third day of being forced to starve, before Liang Jingren came into the room again to see him and say similar threatening and enticing words, Chen Mo couldn’t bear it anymore and called the police.

It was 4:28 p.m. when the police arrived at the Villa and rescued him from the Little Black Room. Chen Mo was helped out of the room. The large window at the end of the hallway was only a meter away from the door, and the bright sunlight shone directly on him, almost blinding him.

A female police officer was in the Living Room questioning two gaunt men with simple clothes, pierced ears, and a general air of hooliganism. When Chen Mo came down the stairs, both of Liang Jingren’s subordinates looked up at him, their expressions both surprised and suspicious. When the female police officer reminded them not to look around and to answer the questions seriously, the two immediately forgot their restraint and looked at each other with simple innocence.

At 4:48 p.m., a black car stopped in front of the Villa’s small courtyard.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Liang Jingren hurriedly got out of the passenger seat, muttering curses under his breath, and ran from the flashing lights of the police car into the Villa.

Two more subordinates followed behind him, both dressed more politely, one of them wearing glasses, like someone who worked in an office. As they passed the police car, they even gave a polite, awkward smile towards the driver’s seat of the police car.

“Are you fucking sick in the head?!”

The two well-dressed men who came in behind him saw Liang Jingren grabbing his briefcase and slamming it against the back of the sofa as soon as they entered the hall. While slamming it, he cursed, “You called the police to arrest me? Huh? Chen Mo, you’re really capable! How come I didn’t realize you were so awesome!”

“Get up! Don’t cower! I haven’t beaten you enough, letting you dare to shit and piss on my head!”

“No, that’s not right! Have I even hit you at all? Huh? Come here! I won’t be called Liang if I don’t beat the shit out of you today!”

Except for the moment the briefcase fell, when Chen Mo dodged to the side, he then calmly sat in the middle of the sofa, leisurely watching the furious man across the coffee table loosening his tie.

Liang Jingren got angry just looking at his appearance, but every time he wanted to reach across the coffee table to grab him, he was stopped by the female police officer next to him. “This gentleman, please don’t get agitated, let’s resolve the problem slowly.”

“Resolve what? I haven’t committed any crime! He’s the one with the problem!” Liang Jingren glared, pointing a trembling finger at the person on the sofa, then suddenly turned his head to shout at the female police officer, “Officer, arrest him! Arrest him, that’s the right thing to do! He’s making a false accusation!”

“What did he do?” the female police officer asked reassuringly.

“He, he…” Liang Jingren’s upper and lower teeth clicked together several times, and several “he” words came out in a row but all lost their continuation.

The female police officer looked at him suspiciously, and without thinking, she knew who was the one who was lying without batting an eye.

Liang Jingren took a deep breath and forced a friendly but stiff smile. “Officer, believe me, I really haven’t done anything illegal. I run a legitimate company, you can check. Hey, I have some documents in my briefcase…” As he spoke, Liang Jingren tried to go towards the sofa again. The female police officer saw through his purpose and tried to stop him from approaching the person who called the police. The moment the police baton was swung out, the few subordinates who had been ready to move immediately stood at attention.

After keeping the person at a safe distance, the female police officer pulled the police baton flat with both hands, suppressed the urge to twitch the corners of her mouth, cleared her throat, and said, “Mr. Chen said he has contacted a lawyer. We’ll talk about anything after his lawyer arrives.”

Chen Mo had been paying attention to Liang Jingren’s condition. After the female police officer spoke, he clearly saw Liang Jingren stunned, his face full of disbelief.

After a while, Liang Jingren seemed to calm down. He turned his head to look over. “You hired a lawyer?”

Although Liang Jingren was calm on the surface, Chen Mo could see the anger he was trying to suppress in his eyes, as if it was about to burst out.

Liang Jingren gritted his teeth and asked, “Tell me, what did I do? You called the police and hired a lawyer, what crime are you trying to pin on me?”

There were police officers in the Living Room, police cars outside the Villa, and police officers sitting in the police cars, so there was nothing to be afraid of. He couldn’t back down now. Chen Mo opened his mouth and bravely looked directly at the pair of black eyes blazing with anger under the thick eyebrows. “You illegally imprisoned me.”

The “lawyer” Chen Mo contacted on the phone was actually his friend Jiang Jinhao.

When Jiang Jinhao heard that someone was inviting him to dinner, he immediately came running on his Big Motorbike, which had just had a makeover. As a result, when he arrived at the entrance of the Villa, he was frightened by the police car and the police officer leaning against the car door smoking, and he braked hard. The piercing sound of the tires gripping the ground resonated for at least a third of the neighborhood.

Fortunately, his modified car documents were complete this time, and he had backed them up in his phone. Jiang Jinhao thought, patting his pounding chest as the police officer walked over.

As a result, the police officer only checked his ID card and asked him some incomprehensible questions, such as his relationship with the person who called the police, and whether he was the lawyer hired by the person who called the police.

Jiang Jinhao scratched his head, holding his helmet, and said, “I, I am Chen Mo’s friend, his high school classmate.”

“You became a lawyer just after graduating from high school?” The police officer smiled, drawing a line with his fingertip over the date of birth on his ID card.

Jiang Jinhao realized that something was wrong, but he couldn’t say what it was. His mind didn’t turn, he just smiled obsequiously, nodded timidly, and took back his ID card with both hands.

When Jiang Jinhao followed the police officer into the Villa, the atmosphere in the Living Room was extremely strange.

Chen Mo was leaning against the middle of the sofa, playing with his phone, while Liang Jingren was sitting on a chair moved from the dining room, staring at Chen Mo.

Liang Jingren leaned forward, shaking his legs extremely impatiently. Behind his chair stood a row of four subordinates, all looking nervous. Although all four of them had their heads lowered, there were occasional small movements behind the chair, such as pulling on each other’s pants, secretly pointing, poking, and twisting, but no one dared to say anything.

The female police officer standing next to the sofa kept checking the time on her phone screen, as if she was very impatient.

Seeing a colleague leading someone in, before the colleague could speak, the female police officer took a step forward and asked, “Are you his lawyer?”

“Ah?” Jiang Jinhao was stunned by the question.

He subconsciously sought help from a reliable adult present, so he turned his gaze to Liang Jingren on the chair and weakly asked, “Brother Ren, what are you guys doing?”

When Liang Jingren saw that the lawyer the police had brought in was actually Jiang Jinhao, he found it funny, but his face had been stiff for a long time and he couldn’t laugh. “You can ask him,” Liang Jingren said coldly, lifting his chin towards the sofa. “Lawyer Jiang.”

Chen Mo looked up and saw that his friend, whom he had called, had finally arrived, still holding his Motorcycle Helmet. It couldn’t have been better.

He had just eaten a bag of biscuits from the female police officer, and his strength had recovered a bit. Chen Mo slowly got up and walked out, bypassing the coffee table on the side away from Liang Jingren.

He reached out and patted his friend’s shoulder, saying as he walked out, “Let’s go, let’s go eat, I’m starving.”

“Ah?” Not only Jiang Jinhao, who had been patted on the shoulder, but also the female police officer and Liang Jingren spoke out at the same time.

Just as Chen Mo grabbed the helmet from Jiang Jinhao’s hand and ran, Liang Jingren was the first to react and immediately stood up to chase him out. The female police officer reflexively grabbed his arm.

To everyone’s surprise, Chen Mo ran extremely fast! The police officer guarding the door thought he was still the weak guy he had just helped down, but he put on his helmet and rushed out of the Villa’s courtyard like an arrow, then took a big step and straddled the cool black motorcycle.

Jiang Jinhao’s bad habit of not pulling out the key was a good habit for Chen Mo. Chen Mo gripped the handbrake, turned on the ignition, and accelerated. After two bursts of engine roars, the motorcycle sped away with the person, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The person who called the police was gone, and the Villa was extremely quiet.

“That, Brother Ren,” Jiang Jinhao asked in a daze, “Did my car get driven away?”

Liang Jingren “Mmm”ed.

Jiang Jinhao’s eyes widened and he shouted, “What should I do?! I just changed the New Painting today! What if Chen Mo scratches my painting if he drives it recklessly?!”

He didn’t seem to be clear about what exactly had happened in this Villa. He only cared about his Big Motorbike.

The glasses-wearing guy, the most well-dressed of the row of four subordinates, moved his foot, reached out, and tugged at the corner of his clothes, whispering, “You can call the police.”

“Ah?” Jiang Jinhao was stunned again.

The glasses-wearing guy pointed at the two police officers and winked.

Before Jiang Jinhao could react, Liang Jingren spoke first. “Officer, I want to call the police.”

Liang Jingren said this to the male police officer at the door, because the female police officer was still grabbing his arm, and her other hand was actually distracted by scrolling through her phone, which was really unprofessional.

The male police officer was also impatient and frowned. “What are you reporting?”

“Wait,” the female police officer raised her hand to stop them from continuing.

She walked to the male police officer, her partner, and showed him the information on her phone. As the male police officer looked at it, his entire face wrinkled up. From the information just sent by his colleagues at the police station, they had clarified the relationships between the people involved in this case.

The female police officer turned to Liang Jingren with a serious expression and asked, “The one who ran out just now is your son, right?”

Liang Jingren pursed his lips in a complicated mood, then nodded honestly and said, “Legally speaking, yes.”

The female police officer asked in an unquestionable tone, without smiling, “So, can I understand that he is making a false police report?”

“You father and son are playing with us, deliberately wasting police resources!”